↬ lecture hall.

@⁰³ bin m. his plan of attack normally consisted of being sweet and cute before slowly insinuating more directly that he had an eye for whoever he was interacting with.

in a million years, taeyong wouldn’t have expected to hear the other refer to him as ‘cute’ from the get-go; they were neither drunk or in a nightclub. god’s will as well would have been unable to prevent his cheeks, stretched over high cheekbones, from flushing a bright cherry pink. the poor boy’s own saliva almost choked him to death upon hearing this stranger set up a ‘date’ for them. in the span of less than ten seconds, he had now been called cute and had acquired a ‘date’(?) — in a /lecture hall/.

“uhm— that’s so kind of you. i’m really grateful for your help,” taeyong cleared his throat bashfully. he wasn’t purposefully ignoring commenting on the date part of the stranger’s suggestion; his brain simply had failed to process the escalation yet.

tucking a lock of blonde strands that came loose behind his ear, taeyong quickly gathered his stuff into his backpack and hoisted it onto his shoulders, before getting up out of his seat. swiftly, he procured his phone from his pocket and handed it to the bold stranger, giving him a timid smile. the phone screen was open on the ‘add new contact’ page.

“just add in your contact details here, and i’ll send you a text so you can get my number too. do let me know what time you’re available... my classes have already ended for the day, so i’m free whenever.” for the first time in what felt like forever, taeyong struggled with maintaining eye contact. mostly because he feared he would combust into an embarrassed pile of dust.

@⁰² taeyong l. fixing up his frames sitting loosely on the tip of his nose, he stared blankly at the lecturer. bin had basically already taken this class, he just failed out of it last semester due to him accidentally missing a few exams in a row. he knows all the stuff for it though, so he figured it wouldn't be that much of a pain to take the class again.

he knows he's gonna pass this time, even thought the professor's kind of a . he's always had a mind for the numbers and when you only need to understand two numbers, it was a pretty simple task for him. a few glances around the room tells him that his peers aren't on the same boat as him. his eyes shift to the right as the slightest hint of a light color catches his attention. a boy, looking as nave as ever, was taking glances towards him.

bin had been used to the stares that people would give him when he was outside and being active, but people in his classes usually only looked to him for answers on their hw problems or help on coding projects that they had. the look of this man sitting next to him seemed to be a mixture of both the attracted looks as well as the 'i need help' look, and bin couldn't focus on the rest of class with that on his mind.

his hands move slower as he notices the cute, blonde, beanie boy turns his body towards him, a slight smirk snuck its way onto his lips before he recomposes himself. stuffing the last of his items into his bag, he turns towards the other lad, placing a hand on the desk to lean against. his eyes scan the other from head to toe before flashing his signature eye smile. "i'd be glad to help, especially if i get to help someone so cute," he couldn't stop the flirtatious words from spilling as this man in front of him seemed like he would be a perfect, innocent doll to play with for the next week or whenever bin would eventually get bored of him. "we could meet up at the cafe later and discuss what kind of project you need help on? and don't worry about treating me, we'll just call it a date or something,"

moon bin thinks he should really stop going for the innocent types, but they're just such easy targets. maybe he'll challenge himself to break the hearts of less naive people. he'll worry about that next time though, because for now he had a very good-looking man in front of him with an offer that he could not ever resist.

@⁰³ bin m. sometimes (more often than not) taeyong regretted taking physics.

sure, he was intelligent and a hardworker, but there were things in his field that no matter how much effort he put into, they would not bear any fruit. such as programming.

unfortunately for the poor kid, he only learned later onto his degree that a lot of physics, especially in the real world, required a crap ton of coding experience. equations and math, he vibed with very well. ones and zeros, might as well be alien language. which was why taeyong was sneaking into one of the computer programming lectures on this lovely afternoon, desperate for some sort of help before his coding assignment that was due in a day.

unsurprisingly, the lecture content was incomprehensible.

the lecturer seemed to be moving a mile a minute through content; the most shocking thing, however, was that the rest of the class was on par. taeyong barely typed in half the void function in the jupyter notebook for his assignment before the professor was already moving onto the next chapter. the young man managed to swallow his whimper just in time. rubbing his eyes under the lens of his glasses, taeyong tugged down the beanie over his blond locks, sulking quietly in his seat. stackexchange was usually helpful enough for him, but he needed some personal help, not a forum question that was either unanswered or written years ago.

that’s when he noticed the cool, collected man sitting a seat away from him. not only was he /cute/, but he seemed like he knew what was going on. or, at least, was great at pretending. perhaps he could kill two birds with one stone...

the moment the class was let out, taeyong inhaled deeply, then contemplated momentarily if he should leave his glasses on before hastily shoving them in his backpack. he tugged off his beanie, giving the soft blonde locks a y ruffle and finally deemed himself fit enough to face the cute guy.

“uhm, excuse me?” he turned towards the stranger, offering a small, timid smile. “i was.. i was wondering if you could lend me some assistance? i have a project that’s due soon, and i’m.. really struggling with the coding aspect of it. i’ll treat you to coffee, lunch, whatever you want!” he proposed to the man, flashing the other his large, sparkling boba-eyes. where he in a nightclub now, he’d have men (and women) at his beck and call by now.

[post deleted by owner]

[post deleted by owner]

@⁰² jongho c. it was a brief instance that could've been missed within mere seconds but as the male's eyes stayed trained on his friend's gestures, he manages to recognise what jongho was doing -- a form of greeting to him was quickly switched to something less friendly, hostile, something that was rarely seen from the latter; it was happening again. the junior didn't need to ask what's wrong to figure out that part of the student body was talking about him; and not in a good way too. with how loud the junior has been in university, it was no surprise that his presence was quite a force to be reckoned. some might consider him good company, others might regard him as bad influence. whilst it was true that he was highly egoistic and a proud narcissist, there were comments that do end up hurting his feelings, though they were all too quickly brushed off and hidden away by a cheeky grin. perhaps it was due to the fact that he was one who prefers to avoid conflicts that he has been able to ignore the false remarks and overly harsh criticisms against him, but as soon as his close ones were implicated, jungkook loses his cool.

but for the sake of jongho and the current situation, he knew it would be wiser to remain calm than to engage in petty squabble. there was no point in it after all -- everyone was allowed their own opinions and if he instigated a fight, he would be feeding to the lies that people liked spreading. "haha, don't you look feisty right now, jongho! was your class that bad?" as he hopped off the bench and wore a placid simper on his face, he approaches his friend with carefree steps and swung an arm around him, pulling him towards his larger frame to restrain him from a possible brawl. chuckles that only the sophomore would know were feigned leaves jungkook's lips next, offering a little 'sorry!' before he ushered his friend away, by means of physically telling the latter to drop it and that he wasn't affected by the comments.

"anyway, i came for you -- obviously . . . ditch the rest of your classes with me, let's go to the arcade or something, anywhere away from here!"

@⁰² jongho c. 11:30 A.M. there should be enough time for the junior to make it to the lecture hall before a certain class ends, before the designated lunch break begun, and before it would be too late to make a quiet escape out of campus while lessons were still ongoing. they were in university anyway, so leaving as and when they want ought be easy, considering the vast schedules of different students where some only start after 12 P.M while others kick it off as early as 8 A.M. the only problem that jungkook would face is to convince his sophomore friend to cut classes with him, and he was almost sure that he might fail to persuade the latter but the ruffles of the plastic bag in his hand reminded him of his plan, easing his worries as a cheeky grin curls at the corner of his lips.

overly enthusiastic footsteps resulted in the male making one too many wrong turns, pointless detours only eating up at the ticking seconds and by the time he has reached the correct lecture theatre, the dismissal bell has rung and students began pouring out of their prior classrooms, crowding the corridors in mere seconds. the continual stream of pupils served a difficulty for jungkook -- his friend was after all, what he would consider, someone of a shorter stature. when standing on the tips of his toes didn't provide any assistance in his search for his companion, he opted to stand on a nearby bench instead, gathering unnecessary attention; not that it matters to him. the extra height proved useful soon enough, as he manages to spot the all familiar figure. immediately, he raises his arms to wave it around in an attempt to draw his attention before he cups his hands around his mouth to yell, "jongho! over here!"